So, you have a blog. Now you need readers, right? Many people assume that writing a blog automatically means they will have readers, or that readers will somehow just stumble upon their blog. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. There are many blogs out there competing for attention. How do you ensure that someone searching the web for a topic relevant to your blog will be led to your site and not someone else’s? That is where keywords come in.
Sure, your blog is saturated with words best suited to your blog. That’s a no-brainer. But are those the same, exact words used by a majority of the people searching for your topic? Is it possible that you prefer the term “appointment book” while web-surfers use the term “calendar?” Or perhaps you spell words out while internet searchers tend to abbreviate? Yes there IS a difference, and if you want to drive the most traffic to your website, it is important to learn how to optimize the language you use in your blog in order to attract the most readers. Here are some tips for conducting keyword research for a new blog:
The first, most common-sense thing to do is to try using layman’s terms as opposed to industry-specific lingo. Remember that readers may know what they are looking for but, because they are not experts, they may not know exactly what it is called.
Use one of the several keyword research tools available to bloggers today to create a list of keywords. Popular programs include Google Suggest, Wordtracker, and the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. The latter, Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool, is free and user-friendly – a great way to start out on your keyword quest. In your keyword program, list the many words and phrases that you think are relevant to your blog and it will provide for you a list of statistics relating to how often those words and phrases are actually used by web-surfers. That way, you can weed out what you know does not work and fill in with what you know does work.
Once you’ve settled on a list of optimal keywords, place them in appropriate places in your blog content, being sure not to disrupt the flow of your writing. Keep it natural sounding, and be sure the keywords make sense in the context. It is not necessary to use each keyword more than three times on a page, so fitting keywords into your text should not be too hard a task.
Keyword research and selection may be tedious, but it is crucial to building a successful blog. It is safe to say that keyword optimization is almost as important as the blog itself because, if you don’t have readers, you don’t have much of a blog. Take the time to plant your keywords and reap the benefits of high-volume traffic and an expansive readership.
